So after having a blast in Rotorua, we got on the road again and headed down to Wellington. You cannot imagine how green the entire country is. It is just so crazy, that we had to show you all a picture of the scenery that we were driving through.
And for all you nerds (and non-nerds) who have seen the Lord of the Rings movies, this next picture is of the infamous Mt Doom! And isnt this just a great picture of it, with the fog rolling off of it.... very dark haha
Then we got down to Wellington, and a couple friends of ours were so great and let us stay with them. It was so fun haning out with them and being shown around Wellington. When we got there, we didnt really know what we were going to do, so Emily, who we were staying with, took us to Mt Victoria, which is also a small Mount in Auckland (very creative these Kiwi's are); but the view from here was incredible. As you can see behind us, that is a view of the Wellington harbor. Its such a pretty city.
We then went out to Thai food with Jeff and Emily and some of Jeff's coworkers. Those people were great, and really funny. That was also our first time having Thai food! So we were a little nervous but it ended up being really really good!The next day we went to the Wellington Botanic gardens and those were pretty amazing. We even got to ride a cable car up to them. Then me, Carla, and Emily went to Jeffs work to pick him up for lunch. Jeff works at Weta so we all wanted to go check out the Weta Cave which is their gift shop and film sculpture displays. Right here is one of the Orcs from Lord of the Rings. It was probably 7 feet tall!
And here is Gollum! The sculpture is so cool and detailed! It was a ton of fun to seem, and Carla and I were dorks and both got pictures with it.
We went out to lunch and had a great time hanging out. Then after we dropped Jeff off, Emily took us for a drive around the harbor. Its so beautiful, and there are so many turn offs. So we stopped at this little rocky area. It was amazing! The water was so crystal clear and there were sea shells everywhere. Carla even found a full abaloni shell!!
Emily was even kind enough to take a picture of us with the beautiful background :) That area is so cool, all of the houses are built on a cliff and some of them even have a gondola to take them from the garage to the house! We also stopped at a beach that was so different from any we have ever been to. Instead of sand it had little smooth multi colored rocks. It felt very strange to walk through. Also, another different thing about the beach, is that it is a clothes optional beach... haha yeah. Pretty funny. We also hear that in the winter it is not rare to see a blue penguin at that beach! Too bad we wont be there to see it. But we did see some bright blue jellyfish! At the end of this post we will put a link to the rest of the pictures from our trip, that way you can see what weve been talking about! Please go check them out!
The last thing we did in Wellington was took a night tour at this place called Zealandia! The four of went on this tour that went from 8 to 11pm. You walk through a nature reserve in the pitch black dark and you listen to all the different kind of wildlife. We saw and heard lots of NZ bird life, including the Tui bird, the Kaka bird (a NZ parrot), and tons of others. We also got to see this animal in the picture below. It is called a Tuatara, which is a lizard, but the cool thing about this animal, is that it is considered to be the last of its species. Which species is it you ask? The dinosaur species of course!
On this tour, when it got really dark, we were able to see hundreds upon hundreds of glow worms lighting up the cliff walls as we were walking along. We were unable to take pictures of them of course, but they were astounding to see. They looked like small bright blue LED lights just floating in mid-air. It was really cool!
And here is Gollum! The sculpture is so cool and detailed! It was a ton of fun to seem, and Carla and I were dorks and both got pictures with it.
We went out to lunch and had a great time hanging out. Then after we dropped Jeff off, Emily took us for a drive around the harbor. Its so beautiful, and there are so many turn offs. So we stopped at this little rocky area. It was amazing! The water was so crystal clear and there were sea shells everywhere. Carla even found a full abaloni shell!!
Emily was even kind enough to take a picture of us with the beautiful background :) That area is so cool, all of the houses are built on a cliff and some of them even have a gondola to take them from the garage to the house! We also stopped at a beach that was so different from any we have ever been to. Instead of sand it had little smooth multi colored rocks. It felt very strange to walk through. Also, another different thing about the beach, is that it is a clothes optional beach... haha yeah. Pretty funny. We also hear that in the winter it is not rare to see a blue penguin at that beach! Too bad we wont be there to see it. But we did see some bright blue jellyfish! At the end of this post we will put a link to the rest of the pictures from our trip, that way you can see what weve been talking about! Please go check them out!
The last thing we did in Wellington was took a night tour at this place called Zealandia! The four of went on this tour that went from 8 to 11pm. You walk through a nature reserve in the pitch black dark and you listen to all the different kind of wildlife. We saw and heard lots of NZ bird life, including the Tui bird, the Kaka bird (a NZ parrot), and tons of others. We also got to see this animal in the picture below. It is called a Tuatara, which is a lizard, but the cool thing about this animal, is that it is considered to be the last of its species. Which species is it you ask? The dinosaur species of course!
On this tour, when it got really dark, we were able to see hundreds upon hundreds of glow worms lighting up the cliff walls as we were walking along. We were unable to take pictures of them of course, but they were astounding to see. They looked like small bright blue LED lights just floating in mid-air. It was really cool!Now, as cool as all of this was, we were not going to be happy if we paid for this tour and were unable to see/hear the main event.....
We were walking along a path, all trying to be very quiet, when our tour guide said "Stop! Look there!" and we saw a KIWI bird running across the path right in front of us. Please go google a Kiwi bird if you have never seen one, because they are the cutest (funniest) looking animal ever, and looks like it should be extinct! It was so cool to see one running across our path. They are these little, clumsy, flightless birds (dont even have wings) and this one just walked around without a care in the world. It didnt even care that we were standing not 5 feet away from it. It was so amazing, and this is one of the hardest birds to see here, as they are night animals, and are mostly found in the "bush" or woods. Of course, we were unable to get pictures of these either, but we will never forget them!
And the links to the rest of the pictures:
Thanks so much and hope you all enjoy the pictures.
Love,
Matty and Carla
No comments:
Post a Comment